Noki had no issue making his way through the camp site. It was a surprisingly clean building made of the same materials as the houses in Watercliff Village, and sat in between a pair of two trees and had a pool behind it. The structure was about twenty-feet tall and thirty-feet wide and took up the majority of the land. Kila, on the other hand, stumbled through the terrain as if she had suddenly lost her vision; and in a sense, she had.
The minute she made it to the bottom of the shadow tree and crossed the threshold, all of her tera sensing went away. It was like the entire area had been cut off from the rest of the world; not a single wave of Tera could be felt coming from past the tree. Kila was about to voice her concern to Noki, but he had gone inside the house while she was busy analyzing. “Mion’s memories didn’t tell me this, I should have dug deeper.” Kila knew that would have been risky and was more so just upset that she could have led Noki and herself into a trap.
“Hey!” Noki’s voice carried to the outside, “There’s a ton of food in here, you should get some.”
Kila figured that if it was a trap, it must not have been a very good one if Noki could get past it. She entered through the darkened doorway and found herself looking at a fairly normal room. It had touches of Jahn’s tastes with its minimalistic yet gouache aesthetics; the walls were stones of sterile white with the pattern of a golden serpent located on every other stone. There was a Stonebark table in the center of the room, a cooking area and two beds made from the same material as the walls. “So the inside is dramatically different from the outside, yeah that sounds like Jahn alright.” On the large table were two piles of assorted meats and breads with Noki taking from both piles and gorging himself.
Noki was downing his fifth piece of meat when he noticed Kila had walked in. “Oh, I got started, sorry. I’m not usually this hungry but I saw all this food and usually what I eat isn’t nearly as fresh and-”
“That’s fine,” Kila said while gesturing for Noki to stop, “ you’ll need to eat more than I will anyways.”
“Oh? Why’s that?” Noki said, or at least attempted to say. He had stuffed two more pieces of meat and a soft bread roll into his mouth.
“How does he not know?” “Because,” Kila said aloud, “I’m a Lesser Iron Soul; I only need to eat about once a week to maintain my physical strength.”
Noki replied while still eating. “Wow, that’s amazing! So is it the higher you ascend, the less you have to eat? If so, then that’s a relief because I feel like a bottomless pit right now.”
Kila continued to watch as Noki tried his best to die via food suffocation, but there was something bothering her. Noki was an Earthen Soul, the foundation level of a Divine Artist, yet he was so thin. He should have a body that was the peak of human physiology and physicality; he wouldn’t necessarily be a walking mountain of muscle, but he should have at least looked like he could lift a small tiger bull or two. Instead, his robes hung loosely from his body and his lack of definition made his limbs appear to be longer than they were.
“Earlier in the cave you said you hadn’t eaten since before the Ceremony.” Noki confirmed that fact with a head nod and Kila continued. “How about before you ascended? How much did you eat on average?”
Noki took another bite of food, swallowed, and then contemplated the question. “Well, Head Chief Bain would leave me a piece of bread and some scraps from the beasts he hunted, but that was only some of the time. If I had to guess, maybe two times a week? Three if I get lucky and find a dead chimera beast near the village.”
That was insane, but it would explain why Noki was so physically underwhelming; he was beyond malnourished. “So even with ascending to Earthen Soul, he was so malnourished that his body didn’t have anything to build upon.” Kila also thought about how Noki was able to survive as long as he did as both a Null and the last few days; that’s when she had an idea. “Is that all of the food here?”
“No, there’s a lot in that box over there. I think whoever uses this place was preparing to come back, so I didn’t want to eat all of their food.”
Kila opened a large, wooden chest and there were scores of meat that had been cooked and prepped. She picked up the chest and dumped it’s contents all over the table, causing Noki to fall back in surprise. “This all belongs to Mion, it’s his campsite. Do you still feel like not eating all the food?”
Noki thought about it for a moment and dove back into the feast. Each morsel was like an explosion of flavor in his mouth, and with each bite his hunger grew more and more intense until the food was nothing more than fuel to be burned in the furnace of his stomach. His speed increased over the duration of his meal until his hands nearly blurred from the pieces of meat to his mouth. “Each bite I take feels like it’s giving me more energy! I want more!”
Kila now watched Noki eat out of an academic curiosity. She used her Divine Sight on him and saw a massive influx in Physical Tera flooding his Body Kulda. Its golden color filled up his core and then spilled out into his pathways, feeding every muscle in his body. “He’s absorbing so much that his body finally has enough to complete the physical portion of his ascension.”
Noki grimaced and dropped a piece of meat onto the table. “My body feels strange, is that normal?”
“There’s a pool in the back, go inside of it, it’ll help with the pain.”
Noki got up and stumbled over to the backdoor. The pain in his body had increased and it felt as if his skin was being stretched by an invisible force. He opened the door and saw the shallow pool. It looked similar to hole caused by the Ceaseless Waterfall but on a much smaller level. Noki took another step and lost his balance, but was caught by Kila and hurled into the water. The cold water nearly caused him to take a breath, but he resisted the urge. Heat surged throughout his body and he remembered this sensation from when he first ascended.
“But why now? I can’t be ascending to Stone Soul Body already can I?
Noki’s muscles expanded as his bones cracked and lengthened, ripping through parts of his skin and dyeing the once blue water a deep crimson. Muscle fibers broke down and reformed dozens of times and each reformation felt like he was being stabbed by a Tigerbull; yet through all the pain, Noki didn’t lose consciousness. On an intuitive level, he knew that this was his body finally completing his ascension to Earthen Soul and when it was finished, Noki emerged from the bloody water as a true Divine Artist.
Noki stood in front of Kila, drenched in both water and blood, a new man. He had grown four inches and was now five-foot and eleven inches tall and looked to have gained a solid twenty pounds of muscle mass. The majority of his robe was shredded due to the water and body growth, so he was nearly shirtless and his pants had ripped at the thighs and calves. Noki’s black hair now rested on his broad shoulders and his facial structure was a bit more defined; his jaw was less round and his eyes had a sharpness to them that they hadn’t before.
“Umm, you’re staring,” Noki said in a slightly deeper voice, “this was supposed to happen, right?”
Kila didn’t hear a word Noki said. She wasn’t oogling at his body, well she was, but not because she was into it but because she had realized that Noki had been fighting and moving at half strength the entire time; that and his physique had undergone such a dramatic transformation that he looked almost as strong as Mion, though the latter was still taller and had muscles on top of muscles. “If I had to go just on appearances, it looks like his body is geared more towards sustained activity and a focus on fatigue reduction. Makes sense if what his memories about his life in the village were true.”
“Hey? Are you there?” Noki waved a hand in front of Kila until she grabbed him by the wrist and lightly pushed him away. “Sorry, but you weren’t responding and I thought something might have happened.”
“Nothing happened, I was just thinking that you’ll need a change of clothes. We should search the house for some and then head out.”
“That’s fine with me, though if it's Mion’s clothes I doubt they’ll fit me.” Kila gave Noki a quizzical look and gestured for him to follow her inside. They searched the house until they discovered a section of easily removable stone and found a spare change of clothes. Kila waited out back near the pool while Noki changed, taking the opportunity to enter the pool herself for a quick wash and recharge. She exited the pool as Noki returned in his borrowed attire and gave him an approving nod.
“Now what would the Baira he knows say?” “Well, looks like it fits a little better than you expected,” Kila said aloud.
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“Honestly I’m a bit surprised, well really surprised. I thought I’d be dragging across the grass, but I only needed this pelt to keep it together.” Noki gleefully pointed to the brown lionape pelt around his waist. “I think I understand why Mion likes these things, they feel awesome and look pretty cool too.”
“Why would you be surprised? You’re almost as big as he is.” Noki gave Kila a confused look and she pointed to the pool. “Go have a look.”
Noki approached the pool and almost leapt backwards at his own reflection. He had expected to see his normal self in his new clothes; a blue sleeveless robe with a pelt around his waist, black pants and white foot wraps. What he saw staring back at him was a man with shoulder length dreadlocks and enough muscle on him to split a boulder with a punch. “Is that me?”
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
Noki stared at the reflection, expecting it to fade away and reveal it was some kind of Tera based trick; but when it didn’t, a tear formed in his eye. He looked like a real Divine Artist now, indistinguishable from any other student at Watercliff, and actually, truly felt like he was on his path of becoming a Delver. Noki then wiped the tear from his eye and proceeded to flex in front of his reflection; it was the first time in his life he had any muscle and he wanted to see what it looked like in various poses.
“We absolutely don’t have the time for that!” Kila’s words came out a lot louder than she had expected, but she also didn’t expect Noki to start checking himself out…though she’d be lying if she said she’d hadn’t done something similar when she first ascended. “I’m gonna check the house again once more, then we’re heading out. For real this time.” It bothered her that she couldn’t sense any Tera outside of this area and her spiritual sensing wasn’t great either. The longer they stayed, the more at risk they’d be.
Noki stopped flexing and moved to follow Kila, but he felt something drawing his attention back to the water. “Hey, I think there’s something down there.”
“In the pool? I didn’t see anything.”
“I..uh…I think I sensed something? I’m not really sure how it works but my gut is telling me there’s something down there.” Now that he was at peak capacity, Noki’s senses felt sharper; both physically and mentally. The sensation he felt reminded him of something he saw in the Red Forest, but he couldn’t tell what it was. “I’m gonna go down and see what it is, just to be sure.”
“Hold on a minute. You clearly can’t sense Tera but you can tell something is done there? Do you even know how deep this thing goes? I lost sight after nine-hundred feet, how do you expect to get down there?”
“Swimming. I used to swim in the village all the time before I ascended. One time I found a tunnel six-hundred feet underwater, it turned out to have natural spiritstones in there. I think I can make it down there as I am now.”
“Six-hundred feet as a Null? How’s that even possible?” Kila’s thought was cut short when she heard a splash and saw that Noki was gone. She ran to the rim of the water and shouted. “Noki!I know you can hear me. We don’t have time for this.” Kila waited to see if Noki was returning, but her Divine Sight picked up nothing.
“He’s already out of range of my Divine Sight?” Kila mulled over her options at the moment; she could flee from here and abandon a request by a Kolo of the Embrace, or stay and risk being killed by Mion Okari. “I better be made into a Kolo after this,” Kila said to herself before diving into the pool.
Noki found himself staring at dozens of scrolls and diagrams plastered over the walls of the surprisingly spacious cavern. It was well lit so he didn’t need to use his Divine Sight, but he did so anyway just in case it was a trap. Raw Tera filled the room like white wisps of smoke, intertwining with another force that Noki couldn’t see.
“So this must be a Heavenly Aspect, makes sense seeing as I don’t have a Spirit Kulda yet.” Noki guessed it must be Earth Aspect, since they were hundreds of feet below the surface…though Water Aspect would also make sense too. “That’s not important,” he told himself, “what’s with all these pictures? I can’t read that well but the diagrams look like…scourbeasts?” Noki stepped to an image that looked like the lionape and scorpion scourbeast he saw a few days ago, but couldn’t make heads or tails of what the inscriptions meant.
“Hey Kila,” Noki said with his back turn,” can you tell me what these mean?”
Kila was sopping wet and exhausted.Yes, it was taxing, holding her breath and swimming down the hole, but her Lesser Iron Body granted her superior lung capacity; her physical stamina was a different matter entirely. Water Aspect behaves in the same way that water itself does; when spread across a large area it’s negligible, but the more concentrated the space the stronger the Water Aspect becomes.
“How is he not out of breath? That was enough Water Aspect to make my muscles burn, he should be face down.” “Let me take a look,” Kila said to Noki and moved him aside. “By the way, how’d you know I was here? You can’t sense Tera.”
“I..how do I put this? You have a kind of scent that smells like a cross between-”
“Forget I asked.” Kila focused on the diagrams and the inscriptions. “This is strange, it’s some kind of experiment involving the…core manipulation of scourbeasts and chimeras?” She moved to the next image: a representation of the Body, Spirit and Mind Kuldas being merged into one entity. “This says that the three kuldas are a byproduct of a human body being unable to contain the different Tera types, but creatures without physical bodies wouldn’t be limited by that restriction.”
“Creatures without physical bodies? You mean like scourbeasts?”
“Yeah,” Kila said as she moved to the next image. “These are all records of studies and experiments that were carried out over the span of…who even knows?” Kila rifled through the documents as Noki wandered the cave. She found a stack of older looking scrolls and read them over:
“Manipulation of Subject Fifty: Tigerbull. Subject was introduced to the Variant Serum while still in the mother’s embryo. A day after it’s birth, Subject Fifty showed no immediate change in physical makeup nor Tera capacity. One month after birth:Subject Fifty has grown to twice the size of a Tigerbull its age and consumes far more than necessary to sustain day to day operations. Two months later: Subject Fifty has reached the full size of a Tigerbull adult, yet it has shown no signs of slowing down. Now is the time to place Subject Fifty into the Testing Area.”
Kila flipped through the pages and spoke so that Noki could hear her. “This Subject Fifty, it was the Tigerbull that attacked the Divination Ceremony.” She waited for Noki to respond, but when he didn’t she continued anyway. “There’s more. Subject Fifty was deemed a failure due to it growing in size and strength in an uncontrollable manner, so it had a piece of its essence drawn and then was released into the Red Forest.”
“I’m sorry but I’m a little confused,” Noki finally said. He was looking for anything about a scorpion scourbeast, but only found more drawings and inscriptions he didn’t understand. “It sounds like someone is trying to combine the three kuldas into one, but also inject chimera beasts with a serum? How are those two related?”
“For starters it’s not just someone,” Kila said as she went over the documents, “It’s Jahn. This place is connected to Mion’s Campsite, remember? You think Mion has the capacity to do something like this? Oh wait, apparently there’s been some success..”
Noki tuned out the last of Kila’s words as the sensation from earlier had returned; this time it felt much closer. He could feel something watching them but nothing was being picked up with his Divine Sight.
Kila continued. “One of them was a successful combination of an Ironbear and Knifefish core, and another was a-wait.” A horrifying thought had just occurred; if Jahn had succeeded in merging two cores, and one of them was a knifefish..then the density of the Water Aspect..
“Noki! This was a trap, just a delayed one!”
From behind Kila, the sound of water rushing echoed through the room until a blue bear with silver scales landed. The artificial creature had a massive silver fin on its back, webbed paws and snout that ended at a razor sharp point. Everything about the creature felt off to Kila; its aspects were a jumbled mess of Earth and Water and it gave its Tera a sort of muddy feel to it. “Ok, this might not be as bad as it looks; it’s still ultimately a chimeric beast so all I have to do is use my Ethereal Tether and-”
“Kila, was there another creature mentioned in the document?” Noki kept his back to her and seemed to be focusing on several spots in the ceiling. The spots looked like an inky black substance that reminded Noki of the tree from earlier, and each spot had no scent to it; it was like everything just vanished into a void.
“What? That’s not important right now, we have to get rid of this thing first.”
“That wasn’t the thing I sensed earlier. There must be another creature around here. Did the document say anything else?”
Kila watched the Knifebear and it did the same, no doubt sizing up its meal. “There was another creature but it needed a wide open space to train..no wait, there was a third failure. A Spiderleon that was injected with an enhanced version of the Variant Serum.”
The Knifebear took one step towards Kila and she immediately began circulating her Tera. At that moment, a line of thick, black web shot from the ceiling and hit the ground where Kila was a moment ago. She landed with her back to Noki and scanned the area with her Divine Sight.
“I don’t think you can use your Tera,” Noki said as he watched the ceiling, “the other thing seems to react to it.”
If Kila couldn’t use any Tera, then they were in trouble. Her Corporeal Art relied heavily on Tera; without it she would only have basic hand to hand combat at her disposal, and against a creature she can’t see and another she couldn’t hope to match physically, things were looking bad.
“Looks like we’ll just have to go through the bear without using Tera,” Noki said as he drew his gaze at the Knifebear. “That’s actually perfect, I’ve been wanting to see what I can actually do now that I’m at a hundred percent.”
Even though most of Kila’s knowledge of Noki came from his memories and her limited time with him, his statement seemed out of character to her. This was the man who just a bit ago, was concerned with the wellbeing of the lionapes. Now he wants to fight a chimera beast? “I don’t understand this guy at all, he’s cautious enough to have survived as Null but bold enough to challenge a creature that’s clearly a match for a Lesser Iron.”
“Alright, let’s get to work.” Noki shifted around Kila so that she was behind him, and met the Knifebear head on.